The use of fiber optic cables for communication is growing rapidly. The particular requirements of fiber optic cables requires special designs for connectors to connect ends of cables together and specially designed termination boxes to, among other things, insure the minimum curvature radius of the fiber optic cable is not exceeded.
With fiber optic connectors, the need to clean, inspect and test is a common activity in the field. The connectors are commonly mounted on a panel or housing and connect two fiber optic cables together. While the front part of the connector is readily accessible outside of the panel or housing to test the fiber optic cable entering the front, the fiber optic cable entering the rear portion of the connector is often within the panel or housing and inspection and testing is more difficult.
In response to the wishes of customers to obtain easier access to the rear portion of the connector after installation in the panel or housing, Siecor has, in certain cases, utilized a mounting plate with very small screws for removably mounting the plate, clip and SC coupler in the panel or housing. This increases the cost of assembly and is less desirable to the customer because of the necessity of removing the screws and replacing the screws during the inspection. A need therefore exists for a technique to provide improved access to the rear portion of the connector which is inexpensive to manufacture and easy and reliable to use in the field.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,735 discloses a separate retainer that can be removed from a frame. This retainer requires that the frame or panels be specially constructed to accommodate the retainer thus preventing retrofitting of existing connector/frame designs. Additionally, the retainer requires too much space thus sacrificing density of connectors. Additionally, the retainer requires simultaneous "squeezing" of the retainer while pulling which can be difficult to do given the small size of the retainer and limited access.